Settlements have been reached between Shell Gulf of Mexico, Inc, and Shell Offshore, Inc with the Environmental Protection Agency for violations of the Clean Air Act during the brief period that they were in operation in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas according to the EPA.

Shell Gulf of Mexico and Shell Offshore agreed to over $1 million in penalties for the two months that the Shell Discoverer and the Kulluk drill ships were in operation in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas during their 2012 drill season. In the settlements announced on Thursday, the penalties for violations of the Discoverer’s permit cost the company $710,000 and violations of the air permit for the Kulluk cost $390,000.

EPA issued the Clean Air Act Outer Continental Shelf permits for Shell’s operations in early 2012. The permits set emission limits, pollution control requirements, and monitoring, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements on the vessels and their support fleets of icebreakers, spill response vessels, and supply ships.

In September 2012, EPA issued a compliance order to Shell based on their June 2012 application to revise the Discoverer Chukchi Sea air permit. The compliance order set higher temporary limits for some pollutants than were allowed in the permit. In January 2013, EPA issued two violation notices for Shell’s Discoverer Chukchi Sea and Kulluk Beaufort Sea air permits. EPA also terminated the September 2012 compliance order for the Discoverer Chukchi Sea permit.

Shell had a very short drill season and was limited to drilling partial wells because of problems with their oil containment system that held that portion of their operation up in Washington state.

Shell did not drill offshore in Alaskan waters in 2013 after the Kulluk incident that grounded the drill rig on the shore of Sitkilidak Island on New Years Eve while underway through the Gulf of Alaska to Seattle. It would remain there for a week before being refloated and taken to Kiluda Bay for inspection and preliminary repair work before being towed to Dutch Harbor, loaded on a heavy lift ship and hauled to Singapore.

The Consent agreements and final orders showing the violations can be seen by following these two links:

https://www.epa.gov/region10/pdf/permits/ocs/shell/shell_gulf_of_mexico_CAA-10-2013-0133_CAFO_090513.pdf

https://www.epa.gov/region10/pdf/permits/ocs/shell/shell_offshore_CAA-10-2013-0132_CAFO_090513.pdf